HYDERABAD: A wave of relief swept through Hyderabad on Thursday when the news emerged that the samples of two borderline cases sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune have tested negative for Coronavirus.
The two samples were of a software engineer, who had travelled to Italy recently, and of a sanitation worker from the corporate hospital where the first COVID positive patient from the State had visited.
Health Minister Eatala Rajender said that the lone COVID positive patient is stable and that his condition was improving.
Speaking to the media, the Eatala said: “It is our good fortune. Both the suspects are also very relieved with the result. Our department is in distress when the people of Telangana are worried. However, we urge the people to not panic and spread rumours as had happened on Wednesday. The software employee had not even tested positive, but the companies started evacuating.”
The confirmation came after around 23 colleagues of the woman software engineer, suspected to be Covid-19 positive, were advised home isolation for two weeks. The techie was working in a firm on the 9th Floor of Building Number 20 at Mindspace, which was evacuated on Wednesday for sanitation, triggering off mild panic. Hundreds of techies began exiting the Park within a span of a few hours, even as authorities appealed for calm.
The minister also said that secondary contact tracking would not be necessary for these two patients now that they have tested negative.
“We are completely ready to tackle the spread of the disease, should it happen. Apart from the number of beds in government hospitals, we have also set aside 10,000 beds in private hospitals and medical colleges. If even that is not sufficient, we have 40,000 2BHK houses that can be utilised for 80,000 isolated rooms,” he said.
“We are also training close to 200 personnel for continuous surveillance on possible spread of Coronavirus in the State,” he added.
Earlier, Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao had said, “We have over 500 medical professionals who are tracking all the suspected cases, treating the positive case, and a part of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).”
Family to be tested again Family members of COVID positive techie to be tested once more to rule out any chance of the infection as the incubation period of the virus is 14 days. All 88 first contact people are under home isolation.